Dar es Salaam — The distributor of new and used commercial vehicles, Benbros Motors Limited, has been ordered to pay Ecobank Tanzania Limited Sh399 million in unsettled loan it secured for importation of vehicles.
The Commercial Division of the High Court has rejected defence of the vehicle importers and three guarantors of the loan who had shifted the blame to the bank over their failure to repay the loan secured in 2015.
Judge Stephen Magoiga ordered the car dealer to pay Ecobank Sh387.7 million plus $4.9 million and dismissed the firm’s counter claim that sought, among other thing, an order that the bank’s actions frustrated their efforts to repay the loan.
The company also suffered double blow after the court appointed Mr Gaspar Nyika to manage all its assets with powers to sale mortgaged properties and ordered eviction of Benbros from its landed property at Mikocheni Industrial Area.
Ecobank brought a suit against the car dealer and three guarantors of the loan–Yasser Mohammed Es-Haq, Noufal Mohammed Es-Haq, and Yusra Mohammed Abdullah Es-Haq–in 2018 to compel the company to repay loan.
It also sought an order for appointment of Mr Gasper Nyika to take control of all assets of Benbros Motors Limited, with powers to sale, lease or collect income of the assets that were used to secure the loan.
The bank also wanted the court to order eviction of the company from plot number 72 Mikocheni Industrial Area that served as security for the disputed loan.
When called to defend the case against them, the defendants jointly admitted the outstanding amount but accused the bank of frustrating the whole loan repayment arrangement by slowness in reacting to their several requests for rescheduling of the loan and the bank’s refusal to release vehicles to waiting customer.
They argued that the situation badly affected Benbros’s liquidity and ability to pay back the loan.
On mortgaging of the plot number 72 at Mikocheni Industrial Area, Benbros argued that the mortgage deed was signed under some constraints and undue influence.
It was further contention of the vehicle dealer that its efforts to secure other financiers ready to buy the loans such as Azania Bank, Equity Bank and CRDB Bank were frustrated by Ecobank."Even when we made efforts to get new financiers who were ready to buy out the loan and pay the bank on condition that the bank help remove Benbros from the Bank of Tanzania (BoT)’s list of non-performing debtors in order […]
